Using Feel Felt Found Method

Using the feel, felt, found method of communication will make you a more effective recruiter.

The effectiveness of your direct sales recruiting practices is extremely important to the success of your business.

The more events your organization has planned, the more revenue your company generates. It is a simple formula, but the missing ingredient is convincing new recruits to come on board and try it out.

Most people are resistant to trying something new if they have no experience with it. That is why your rejection rate for talking to new recruits may be a little high. But you can use the sales method of feel/felt/found to help get past objections and at least help recruits to see the benefits of giving the business a try.

What Is The Feel Felt Found Method?

The feel, felt, found method of combating concerns tells someone that they are not alone.

You know how they feel about the concern, you have a case of someone who felt in a similar way and when they did give it a go they had (found) great results.

In most cases, your personal experience is used in party plan recruiting. This is true when it comes to using the feel/felt/found method as well.

Recruit Concerns – Keep it Personal

Don’t try to make the recruit feel small by talking down to her when you are answering her objection or arguing it. You should relay a personal experience that acts more as a story than a lecture.
You do not literally say feel felt found every time but your word choices indicate that you do know how they feel, you felt the same way yourself (or know someone who did) and what you (or they found was….

An example of using the feel felt found technique in a recruiting interview may go like this:

If a recruit indicates that she does not feel she has the time to plan and host events, then you can respond like this:

“I understand how you feel. I have to be honest, when I first got started, I felt the exact same way. What I found was that I was able to fill the down time I had with a money-making venture and I still had all of the time I needed to take care of my other responsibilities. What kinds of things keep you busy?”

This sort of a response will allow you to convey a story from personal experience and then finish it with the lesson that you learned.

You are not trying to tell the recruit how to feel but rather you are using this as an invitation for the recruit to ask questions and get more information.

Keep it Pertinent

One of the biggest mistakes that can be made with the feel/felt/found approach is trying to draw a correlation between the rejection and a completely unrelated event.

For example, if the recruit feels that the pricing is too high on party planning products, then you should respond with a feel/felt/found response that deals with your personal experience on pricing issues.

A story about how you had problems getting a good price on your last vehicle is not pertinent and not going to help the situation.

Feel – Felt – Found Effective Communication

The feel/felt/found approach is easy to remember and, when used properly, effective at getting recruits to rethink their objections. All you want a recruit to do is see that her objection should not stand between the opportunity you are offering and her chance to make extra money.

You can relay your own feel felt found story or you can use an example from one of your team members such as this one where a potential says they are concerned about what their husband would say:

“I know how you feel… I had a new consultant last year who felt the same way as you do. What she found was that after she got going in her business she had more time to spend with the family because she was able to give up her full time job and work this party time. What do you think your husband will object to?”

Keep it short, use the 10 second rule and end in a question that will give you more information about the concern.

Comments

I often hear this that my products are too expensive and “they” can buy them at cheap franchise store. I started using this- they still may buy cheap but they have listened to the benefits of buying mine. And, of course, parties often result from the 3 f’s.

I completely agree and love this. I can talk to 10 people and maybe 1 of them have heard of It Works before I talked to them. Our company is 11 years old and there are not even 100,000 active distributors worldwide yet. Definitely not saturated at all.

I am with Neal’s Yard Remedies Organic in Oxford, England, UK and Deb’s tips WORK! Within two weeks of listening to the radio shows and reading the arricles, I am now mentoring two new consultants,have three parties ( out of my immediate circle of friends) and stepped out of my comfort zone and am now working with a local boutique on a Step into Spring pamper night! Win-win all around!